The Monkey's Fist

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

This is our "economy" car + free upgrade. Not quite a convertible, but I'm diggin' the sunroof!

You know how every spring-break movie ever seems to start with a shot of college kids running enthusiastically towards a car, then cut to them laughing, wind in hair, as they zoom down the open road? Looks better with college kids than sixty-somethings, but still that happy scream of "caaaar!" and anticipation of freedom was us about 3 weeks into our stay here. Hadn't been in our original budget but it was an affordable luxury, and great way for us to do more exploring.

Something funny about the way the human mind works. Intellectually I know that it would be cheaper to take a taxi each way to whatever we want to do on the island (groceries, hiking, out to lunch with friends) even if we did so every single day, than to rent a car by the month. Of course I can figure that out, I minored in math in college, after all. But there's also the hassle factor, the nickel-and-diming feel of it, that says even though I know it's cheaper to take taxis than to rent a car for the month, I actually won't call a taxi to go out to lunch with friends or go to the beach on a whim if I know I'll have to shell out $10 plus tip each trip. Conversely, though, if the car has already been paid for and each individual trip doesn't have a clearly associated reminder of cost, we'll go for those little whims.

So we called Enterprise, and, remarkably, scored a free upgrade (!!) from the economy car we rented to the luxe Chrysler above, and we've been putting plenty of fun miles on it. Almost immediately we needed the ability to seat 5 comfortably when friends from s/v Octopussy sailed into town and we spent some fun time together. We also met fellow bloggers from Till the Butter Melts when we were anchored out one evening and I saw a Facebook post of theirs complaining about the rolly conditions where they were and thought, "Wait a minute, that sounds like exactly where we are!" Sure enough, next morning when it became light, I hailed them on VHF ... we were about 100 yards off their bow. We were able to spend some fun time with them, interspersed with trips to the grocery store, hardware store, and fresh bagels, thankful again for the freedom offered by the car. This is the first time we've had wheels for an extended period since we sold our cars in 2013 when we left Annapolis, and it's feeling far better than I had anticipated. Let the good times ... roll!